Terms in this set (317)
Asch's study Conformity
Asch's aim Asch (1955) set out to investigate how people respond to group pressure.
Asch's Method 123 American male students. Each of these naïve participants was tested with a group of
between 6-8 confederates.
Shown picture attached, and asked which 2 lines matched. 18 trials and on 12 of them (the
'critical' trials) confederates all answered the same wrong answer
Asch's results Participants conformed on 38.6% of trial
25% never conformed so 75% conformed at least once.
Asch's study Evaluation 1 May only be relevant to 1950s America. Particularly conformist time as people afraid to
behave differently.
Another study by Perrin and Spencer conducted in the UK found just 1 conforming
response in 396 trials.
Asch's Study Evaluation 2 Artificial tasks - Doesn't reflect everyday situations where people conform. The group
formed was not like a group of friends.
Ungeneralisable.
Asch's Study Evaluation 3 Cultural Differences - It is more reflective of individualist cultures like the US and the UK.
Results can't be generalised to collectivist cultures where rates are higher (Bond and
Smith)
Social factors affecting conformity group size, task difficulty, anonymity
Group size Asch increased the number of confederates and found it increased the number of people
who conformed
,Group size evaluation group size has different effects depending on type of task. (In Asch's study the answer
was obvious but when considering musical preferences, it is not.)
Anonymity Asch altered his method so that participants answered on a piece of paper anonymously.
Results showed less conformity.
Anonymity evaluation Asch's study involved a group of strangers.
Effect of anonymity changes if group are friends (Huang and LI)
Task difficulty Harder tasks make the answer less certain and so people feel less confident and may
look to others for the answer.
Task difficulty evaluation Does not apply as much to people with greater expertise
Dispositional factors affecting conformity Personality and expertise
locus of control internals believe they are in control whereas externals believe it is a matter of luck and
other outside forces.
Personality Burger and Cooper investigated effect of locus of control.
Rating funniness of cartoons and a confederate said his ratings out loud. externals likely
to conform.
Personality evaluation locus of control does not seem to have an effect on conformity in familiar situations.
Expertise expertise increases confidence and those with it are less likely to conform.
Expertise evaluation focusing on one single factor to explain conformity is simplistic. Being an expert is not
sufficient, you may still conform due to other factors.
Milgram's study Obedience
Milgram's aim Investigate whether a normal person would give somebody an electric shock if told to
do so by an authority figure
, Milgram's Method 40 male volunteers (told it was for a study on memory)
confederate 'learner' asked questions and when answered incorrectly, participant
'teacher' told to give them a shock with an increasing voltage.
Milgram's Results all participants went up to 300V (12.5% stopped at 300) and 65% went up to 450V.
Participants displayed sign of stress such as: sweating, trembling, stutter, biting lips etc.
Milgram's Conclusion Obedience related to social factors not disposition, e.g. location, novel situation.
Milgram's evaluation 1 Lacked realism - Perry found (by listening to recordings of the study) that participants
voiced suspicions on whether the shocks were real or not.
(She concluded that the participants realised that shocks were faked but continued as
they didn't want to spoil the study)
Milgram's Evaluation 2 Supported by other research - In one lab study, 100% of females delivered a fatal shock
to a puppy (Sheridan and King)
Milgram's Evaluation 3 Ethical issues - Participants experienced distress
Milgrims agency theory (social factors) Agency, Authority, Culture, Proximity
Agency Agentic state: Follow orders with no responsibility
Autonomous state: Own free choice.
Authority Agentic shift: moving from making own choices to following orders, occurs when
someone is in authority.
Culture - social hierarchy Some people have more authority than others.
Depends on society and socialisation.
Proximity Participants less obedient in Milgram's study when in same room as learner, increasing
'moral strain'
Agency theory evaluation 1 Blass and Schmitt showed students a clip of Milgram's study, they blamed the
experimenter rather than the participants.
Agency theory evaluation 2 Cannot explain why there is not a 100% obedience in Milgram's study
Asch's study Conformity
Asch's aim Asch (1955) set out to investigate how people respond to group pressure.
Asch's Method 123 American male students. Each of these naïve participants was tested with a group of
between 6-8 confederates.
Shown picture attached, and asked which 2 lines matched. 18 trials and on 12 of them (the
'critical' trials) confederates all answered the same wrong answer
Asch's results Participants conformed on 38.6% of trial
25% never conformed so 75% conformed at least once.
Asch's study Evaluation 1 May only be relevant to 1950s America. Particularly conformist time as people afraid to
behave differently.
Another study by Perrin and Spencer conducted in the UK found just 1 conforming
response in 396 trials.
Asch's Study Evaluation 2 Artificial tasks - Doesn't reflect everyday situations where people conform. The group
formed was not like a group of friends.
Ungeneralisable.
Asch's Study Evaluation 3 Cultural Differences - It is more reflective of individualist cultures like the US and the UK.
Results can't be generalised to collectivist cultures where rates are higher (Bond and
Smith)
Social factors affecting conformity group size, task difficulty, anonymity
Group size Asch increased the number of confederates and found it increased the number of people
who conformed
,Group size evaluation group size has different effects depending on type of task. (In Asch's study the answer
was obvious but when considering musical preferences, it is not.)
Anonymity Asch altered his method so that participants answered on a piece of paper anonymously.
Results showed less conformity.
Anonymity evaluation Asch's study involved a group of strangers.
Effect of anonymity changes if group are friends (Huang and LI)
Task difficulty Harder tasks make the answer less certain and so people feel less confident and may
look to others for the answer.
Task difficulty evaluation Does not apply as much to people with greater expertise
Dispositional factors affecting conformity Personality and expertise
locus of control internals believe they are in control whereas externals believe it is a matter of luck and
other outside forces.
Personality Burger and Cooper investigated effect of locus of control.
Rating funniness of cartoons and a confederate said his ratings out loud. externals likely
to conform.
Personality evaluation locus of control does not seem to have an effect on conformity in familiar situations.
Expertise expertise increases confidence and those with it are less likely to conform.
Expertise evaluation focusing on one single factor to explain conformity is simplistic. Being an expert is not
sufficient, you may still conform due to other factors.
Milgram's study Obedience
Milgram's aim Investigate whether a normal person would give somebody an electric shock if told to
do so by an authority figure
, Milgram's Method 40 male volunteers (told it was for a study on memory)
confederate 'learner' asked questions and when answered incorrectly, participant
'teacher' told to give them a shock with an increasing voltage.
Milgram's Results all participants went up to 300V (12.5% stopped at 300) and 65% went up to 450V.
Participants displayed sign of stress such as: sweating, trembling, stutter, biting lips etc.
Milgram's Conclusion Obedience related to social factors not disposition, e.g. location, novel situation.
Milgram's evaluation 1 Lacked realism - Perry found (by listening to recordings of the study) that participants
voiced suspicions on whether the shocks were real or not.
(She concluded that the participants realised that shocks were faked but continued as
they didn't want to spoil the study)
Milgram's Evaluation 2 Supported by other research - In one lab study, 100% of females delivered a fatal shock
to a puppy (Sheridan and King)
Milgram's Evaluation 3 Ethical issues - Participants experienced distress
Milgrims agency theory (social factors) Agency, Authority, Culture, Proximity
Agency Agentic state: Follow orders with no responsibility
Autonomous state: Own free choice.
Authority Agentic shift: moving from making own choices to following orders, occurs when
someone is in authority.
Culture - social hierarchy Some people have more authority than others.
Depends on society and socialisation.
Proximity Participants less obedient in Milgram's study when in same room as learner, increasing
'moral strain'
Agency theory evaluation 1 Blass and Schmitt showed students a clip of Milgram's study, they blamed the
experimenter rather than the participants.
Agency theory evaluation 2 Cannot explain why there is not a 100% obedience in Milgram's study
